Passenger rights

Which rights do passengers have and what can be done if the flight is delayed or has been cancelled?

If your flight was canceled by the airline, you should first contact the airline and request a refund of the ticket price or to rebook your ticket to the next possible flight.

Please keep all pieces of evidence (e.g. boarding passes) related to the delay, cancellation or denied boarding. Other pieces of evidence are bills for Food and Drink, Taxi, Hotel, Telephone etc. All additional costs incurred because of the delay or cancellation can be submitted with your complaint. Please write down when the actual departure took place and when you actually landed. Ask the staff about the reason for the delay / cancellation.

After the flight, you can contact the airline's customer relations department via their website and make their demands.

Find out about your passenger rights and determine what you are entitled to. Passenger rights: EU-regulation Nr. 261/2004

The European member nations have acted to strengthen consumer rights and passed a regulation in 2004 which entitles the passenger to rely on when demanding their rights in case of cancellation or delay of their flights, because only those who know their rights can claim them.
Here you can read the entire text of Regulation (EG) no. 261/2004.

What you can do when the airline rejects your claim

The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) offers a form sheet about irregularities for compensation and / or care for European passengers in the event of cancellation, delay or denied boarding. Whether or not a dismissal of your complaint by the airline is allowed, must be checked by either a specialist lawyer (for travel law) or the conciliation board for public transport (SOEP).

Service Number for the conciliation board for public transport (SOEP): +49 30 - 64 49 93 30 (Mondays - Fridays 11am until 3pm).

The SOEP is also responsible for railway, ship and bus transportation and is only responsible for listed members (PDF) , Lufthansa for example is not listed. For package tours the respective tour operator is responsible.

SOEP complaint form for air transportation
SOEP complaint form for transportation by rail (german)

Let us help you with your complaint case

You are unsure who to send your complaint to and what the best way to proceed is? We would like to support you with evaluating your case and if necessary forward it to the responsible airline. Please share your experience with us , so we can offer you helpful tips on how to proceed. Please tell us via our Complaint form.

ABC Travel Service can only get compensation and work on your behalf if we have a signed mandate. We will contact the service providers on your behalf and submit your complaint and demands. If we are not successful on our own, an attorney will evaluate your case. If deemed necessary, we might need to take your case to court. For the work on your case, we ask for 25% of the reimbursement that we received from the airline/service provider. If we are unsuccessful, you do not have to pay us. If you accept these terms and want our help in your complaint case, please let us know. Please be aware, that we do not provide legal advice, we only help you to submit your case to the right service provider.

We will send you a mandate after you have submitted your case to us via our complaint form and we had a chance to evaluate your case.